Week 1: The Science of Psychology

Question 1

TRUE OR FALSE:

Psychology is a science Because it takes this same general approach to understanding one aspect of the natural world – human behavior

Answer 1

TRUE

Question 2

IDENTIFICATION:

usually defined as the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.

Answer 2

Psychology

Question 3

ENUMERATION:

What are the three fundamental features of the scientific approach (Stanovich, 2010)?

Answer 3

• Systematic Empiricism
• Empirical Questions
• Public Knowledge

Question 4

IDENTIFICATION:

refers to activities and beliefs that are claimed to be scientific by their proponents

Answer 4

Pseudoscience

Question 5

TRUE OR FALSE:

Pseudoscience may appear to be scientific at first glance - but are not.

Answer 5

TRUE

Question 6

ENUMERATION:

A set of beliefs or activities can be said to be pseudoscientific if:

Answer 6

• its adherents claim or imply that it is scientifiC
• it lacks one or more of the three features of science

Question 7

ENUMERATION:

Who conducts scientific research in Psychology?

Answer 7

• Generally conducted by people with doctoral degrees and master’s degrees in psychology and related fields
• College and university faculty, who often collaborate with their graduate and undergraduate students

Question 8

ENUMERATION:

What are the 2 classifications of Scientific Research?

Answer 8

• Basic Research
• Applied Research

Question 9

IDENTIFICATION:

conducted primarily to address some
practical problem

Answer 9

Applied Research

Question 10

IDENTIFICATION:

conducted primarily for the sake of achieving a more detailed and accurate understanding of human behavior

Answer 10

Basic Research

Question 11

TRUE OR FALSE:

Basic Research does not necessarily trying to address any practical problem.

Answer 11

TRUE

Question 12

IDENTIFICATION:

Intuitive beliefs about people’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings

Answer 12

Folk Psychology

Question 13

IDENTIFICATION:

One primary reason that psychology relies on science rather than common sense

Answer 13

Folk Psychology

Question 14

TRUE OR FALSE:

Folk Psychology includes common-sense ideas that people use to understand and predict the behavior of others often turn out to be wrong.

Answer 14

TRUE

Question 14

IDENTIFICATION: Folk Psychology examples

leaving thing up to fate when uncertain

Answer 14

Bahala Na

Question 14

IDENTIFICATION: Folk Psychology examples

avoiding shame by being careful in social situations.

Answer 14

Hiya

Question 15

IDENTIFICATION: Folk Psychology examples
going along with the group to keep the peace

Answer 15

Pakikisama

Question 15

IDENTIFICATION: Folk Psychology examples

feeling obligated to repay the favors

Answer 15

Utang na Loob

Question 16

IDENTIFICATION:

Compounded by the fact that we then tend to focus on cases that confirm our intuitive beliefs and not on cases that disconfirm them

Answer 16

Confirmation Bias

Question 17

IDENTIFICATION:

Does not mean being cynical or distrustful, nor does it mean questioning every belief or claim one comes across

Answer 17

Critical Thinking Attitude

Question 18

IDENTIFICATION:

Pausing to consider alternatives and to search for evidence — especially systematically collected empirical evidence— when there is enough at stake to justify doing so

Answer 18

Critical Thinking Attitude

Question 19

IDENTIFICATION:

They accept that there are many things that they simply do

Answer 19

Tolerance of Uncertainty

Question 20

IDENTIFICATION:

Not know not enough evidence

Answer 20

Tolerance of Uncertainty

Question 21

TRUE OR FALSE:

New research leads to new questions, which lead to new research, and so on.

Answer 21

TRUE

Question 22

**ENUMERATION:** The researcher does the following:

Answer 22

1. Formulates a research question 2. Conducts a study designed to answer the question 3. Analyzes the resulting data 4. Draws conclusions about the answer to the question 5. Publishes the results so that they become part of the research literature.

Question 23

**IDENTIFICATION:** How can so many of our intuitive beliefs about human behavior be so wrong?

Answer 23

Because it happens that psychologists have **conducted scientific research** on it and **identified many contributing factors**